The Doppelganger Wars
by MeykoLove
Summary: The Nobodies must protect the last known Soul of Divinity. On the one night the bird is allowed to leave its cage, it triggers a series of events that uncover secrets centuries old—and the murder that called forth the Darkness. Yaoi, multiple pairings.
1. Prologue: Puppet

**Disclaimer: Final Fantasy Kingdom Hearts characters and names are the property of Square Enix. This story is written purely for entertainment and not profit.**

**xxxXXXxxx**

**The Doppelganger Wars **

**Prologue**

**Puppet**

**xxxXXXxxx**

"_Isn't there something really scary about people who knowingly, consciously, use other people as stepping stones?"_

_-NISIOISIN, Zuregeto: The Kubikiri Cycle_

**xxxXXXxxx**

Memory.

Falling down.

Way, way down.

To a place where you couldn't see me.

Where I couldn't see me.

Even now, in the mirror, it's odd, the reflection.

I can't quite make out.

What it is I find.**(1)**

It's certainly not me.

Not anymore.

Not without you.

"**Do you love me?"**

I don't know.

Can't tell.

Can't remember what that is.

Love.

A memory from long ago.

"**A pawn is a simple, pliable tool."**

A puppet.

"**A...puppet?"**

Is that what I am?

"**You won't be needing this."**

Is that why I can't remember?

"**Think about it. Life without a heart will be so much more..."**

Empty—puppets are empty.

They don't know love.

They don't know anything, can't remember.

Can't remember what it's like to be them.

_L e o n_

**xxxXXXxxx**

**Author's Note: I dunno why the line breakers don't work anymore, but it's really starting to bug me.**

**So, lol, my third work in progress. Why? Cause I'm so bored, I just want to write. At four in the morning! Per usual, an idea I've been mulling over for some time, and wanted to dish it out to the public. As a warning, this will have numerous yaoi pairings. That means guys having sex with other guys. And the main pairing with be Leon/Cloud centric, but there's a special person I can't wait to throw in to make it all the more intense. Oh, and yes, Cloud's uke. **

**This time, my intended world won't be post-apocalyptic...that much. I want this to be a grand fantasy involving myths and creatures and magic! And maybe I won't intend for Zexion and Demyx to die in this story! It will include characters from the others Final Fantasies too. I'm not very fond of OCs...except for Ziggy's and Angel's... and that one guy in Green Dreams...**


	2. Oiseau dans une Cage Ouverte

**Disclaimer: Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts characters and names are the property of Square Enix. This story is written purely for entertainment and not profit.**

* * *

**The Doppelgänger** **Wars **

**Chapter One **

**Oiseau dans ****une Cage Ouverte**

* * *

—_heartless eyes._

_My first impression of the black-haired woman, _

_Yûko Ichihara, settled on that phrase._

—_frightening eyes._

—_cruel eyes._

—_bewitching eyes._

—_hard eyes._

—_eyes that looked at you _

_as though you were less than human._

—_eyes that looked right through you._

—_eyes that appraised you._

—_eyes that measured the world in reverse._

—_eyes that denied the way of the world._

_That sort of eyes._

_Unable to stand having those eyes focussed on me, _

_and unable to continue staring back at them, _

_I consciously dropped my gaze._

"_...'Go ahead. I dare you'..."_

_-NISI__**O**__ISIN, xxxHOLiC: ANOTHERHOLiC: Landolt-Ring Aerosol_

* * *

He felt sick.

He felt sick, sick, sick.

Oh god, oh god, oh god.

_I'm going to throw up._

He would have if he wasn't so busy screaming.

He was on the verge of vomiting.

"You see what you've caused? _Why_? It's _your_ fault! I didn't want to!"

He didn't even _know_.

_He didn't even know._

"Why? It's always you—no, I'm sorry, oh no, oh god. I'm sorry—I didn't mean—I didn't _want _to! It's not my fault! Don't blame me! I didn't want to!"

She was trembling.

And crying. Blood pulsed about his ankles. Everything was red. Red red red and sadsadsadsadSAD.

He wanted to hit her.

"_Fight BACK, damn you, why won't you fight back?"_

This was hopeless. Madness. It couldn't be real.

It was a crime against nature.

It upset the synchronicity.

A pathetic fallacy.

"It's not my fault—I loved you, don't you understand? I loved YOU! WHY DID YOU DO THIS? I LOVED YOU, can't you see?"

_Should I be condemned?_

"I h-hate y-you-ou."

_What's this?_

This sensation on his face?

_Tears._

"NO! NO NO NO NO NO! PLEASE, NO!"

_Don't you _dare_._

_Don't you dare lead where I can't go, not with these eyes of mine._

He'd been the Perfect Monster.

She'd completed him on the other side of the mirror.

* * *

He hadn't actually believed it was possible.

Merely a hypothetical, albeit awkward and a bit random, exchange of conversation. A tête-à-tête that maybe wasn't composed of a typical subject, but still just meaningless banter. Nothing that meaning could ever be applied to. Alternatively, that it was applicable to _them. _It was a talk you had from a distance, perhaps with indirect involvement.

She'd started it with a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-sister-of-a-neighbour-type alibi, though. The result had been calculable. Impossible fundamentally; but he'd forgotten to remove _himself _from the equation.

"What are the chances of success?"

"Define 'success'?"

"A long-term attainment. More or less an ultimate goal."

"Hmm, well I'd have ta' say slim, right, because most people don't reach that endpoint, right? They get distracted or give up."

"But when you get there, it's like nobody can touch you?"

"Yeah, well, it's like you're the first runner to cross a finish line, but all the other competitors think you cheated. Everyone always wants to take it away from you—or is that just a selfish view?"

"No, it sounds reasonable. But if you did cheat, would you still consider yourself successful?"

"I guess if you got there. You're asking if the ends justify the means, and that's subjective."

"Hmm..."

"Were you hoping for a better answer?"

"No, I'm just thinking."

"Trying to fill up time, right?"

"Exactly, nyahahahahaha!"

"It's getting late. Hopefully we'll be finished soon."

It really had been pointless. Without objective. That should have put him on high alert because it hadn't been a 'blah-blah-blah-then-blah' friendly exchange, a smug bout of bickering even. It had just been nothing. About nothing. Like she was confirming items on a nonexistent checklist with the boxes filled in, or correcting a test with all the right answers. She actually _had _been filling up time.

She'd already been looking through him. Looking at that mirror, at that easy-go-lucky water enigma of a reflection.

"_Red is such a lovely colour on you—you should wear it more often."_

It was like he'd been a shadow catching up to his own body. Everything seemed preordained; on rerun; he'd done it all before.

"Have you ever thought about being drunk?"

"Eh?"

"When you're drunk, what do you think? I mean, what do you think about yourself?"

"...that I'm being 'abnormal'."

"You don't think of you intoxicated as your actual self? Who you really are?"

"No, I'm under an influence, it _can't _be me."

"It's not about being _wasted _it`s about release. But just because you`re not in control doesn`t mean it`s not you. Perhaps the 'influence' is just revealing you, to a certain extent."

"Basically you`re asking if the true me is my intoxicated self or my conscious self?"

"I don't know. I`m speaking nonsense."

They were _human beings. _They were constantly under influence, volatile locomotives of flesh fuelled by emotions. She'd asked unanswerable questions. Questions with such controversial grey area diverging black and white.

"What do you think of the Heart as?"

"..."

_In reality, it's our definition._

_The sway to our influence._

_The anchor to our goal._

"A privileged joke."

* * *

Rayleigh always had a fondness for children.

Horrified something awful by a revelation of her inability to produce such innocuous life, she'd resolved herself. No more trying. Naturally she'd been upset. A longing heart had a way of making everything feel empty, but she'd forced that urge to sleep. It wasn't just that she was gay. She had a physical debilitation. So there was _no_ possibility. Especially since the consequences of her partner trying weren't worth it. Shalua could not support human life.

Signing onto the STRIFE Project had been her escape method. Motherless children. A childless mother. A complementation of each others' absences. She would be strong enough to resist maternity. She promised Shalua that...that...

That rich intoxicant.

That penetrating _blue_.

Those gorgeous sapphire resplendent eyes. She should have known the dangers. What an irony—or maybe it was just her sexist perception—to be a female masochist. That gaze morphed into a thrill, her drug, her dosage of a taste of almost. Shalua had pretty, round blue eyes. Rayleigh's own hair was blonde. So what if his eyes were deeper and head more fair a flaxen. He was close enough to a replacement, and for Rayleigh's secret covet, he would do.

* * *

**Author's Note: This chapter doesn't actually end here. I'm just posting this to get a feel for it. So if anybody is reading, please give a shout. Mostly I'm annoyed at the amount of Cloud/Leon, fundamentally different from Leon/Cloud. Not that Cloud can't top. Absolutely, he can. Read _Tease _by Soyna lately? Cloud _can_ top. But he's not dominant. Sorry, why am I ranting?**

**I have rudimentary French skills. But i really think it'll be cool to post the Chapter Titles in French. So I will, even if i horribly mess up on the grammar. **

**Like how everyone keeps saying 'Eclair' means 'Lightning' in French. But it's actually more specific than that-it means 'Lightning Flash'. Sort of, in reference to... See? French is picky. The verbs are so hard too.**

**Please let me know how you're liking the introduction to "Bird in an Open Cage".**


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